Best-looking 4k transfer

With all the talk about the recent 4k transfers of the Star Wars trilogy, it got me thinking about the best transfers at that resolution, and as luck would have it, I got an eyeful of the 4k restoration of the theatrical general release version of Stanley Kramer's gut-busting madcap epic It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World... ye gods, that thing is absolutely stunning; fine detail and colour saturation like you wouldn't believe, it literally looks like it was made yesterday (the irony of that is if it had been, it likely would have been finished at 2k), if there's a better 4k transfer out there, I've yet to see it... but I'd sure love to!!!

Any thoughts and/or recommendations?

 

I worked a little bit on the 4K restoration of The Egyptian for Fox, and I think that's the best that film ever looked.

 

My Fair Lady

 

I'm guessing outcome depends on source, commitment, $ and knowledge and skill of technician.

 

Are you talking about viewing a theatrical 4K print? 4K UHD releases are just trickling out (I got one yesterday), but we're learning that "4K remastering" doesn't always mean the original source components were at 4K resolution, as you referenced.

 

No, I meant a 4k transfer on an ancillary format like DVD/Blu ray. I saw a 4k television recently, not impressed, is it supposed to have that 'video' look to it? And it was Insterstellar they were showing too, it looked like a 1950's soap opera shot on video or something, like those few episodes of The Twilight Zone that were shot on video rather on film.

 

That's just the crap "smooth motion" frame rate interpolation that TV manufacturers use on virtually all models today. Has nothing to do with 4K, and they do with standard 1080p all the time.

I'm still a bit baffled at your thread premise, mainly because we don't really know what Blu-rays have a genuine 4K work flow, and advertising around this is often misleading. It's a bit like asking "what's your favorite hi-rez mastering" if all we have to listen to is standard CD.

 

I meant a film given a 4k restoration and that restored print being released on home viewing formats... and many restored films will actually state they are 4k transfers, it's part of the marketing as I see it.

 

Baraka and Samsara. 65mm negatives and maybe even an 8K scan, IIRC. Purty.

 

It's just a number. The mastering quality encompasses a lot of things beyond the K. Technically, if the scanners are capable of 4K (or it was shot on a 4K camera), you're already seeing a 2K downrez just in the initial scan, and I've done a bunch of those. Most (but not all) of the color-correction mastering gear out there is resolution-independent, so it'll process whatever you feed into it. All 4K does it make everything a lot slower in post. It does make a difference when you watch the 4K file on a 4K monitor, but it's not the drastic difference HD was from SD.

 

Lawrence of Arabia on Blu-ray

 

Do you think that the new 4K UHD discs will probably have some films that were 2K at some point in their development? *

*I think I already know the answer. Life of Pi is slated to come out on UHD disc and it was shot on Arri Alexas, which I think are 2K cameras.

 

Yes they were, at least at the time that film was shot. The newer Arri cameras are UHD capable, though.

 

So then, do audio/visual forums members get up in arms about a 2K shot film coming out on 4k disc? Like they do when a 16bit master comes out as a 24 bit HD release? Interesting.

 

This. 8k scan and 4K processed. The 4K DCP is without the inherent deficiencies of film and many argue it is better. Incredible how much they were able to do and when it gets upgraded to 4k UHD I will buy a 4K display.

 

Yup. It's the video equivalent of Brothers in Arms coming out on DVD-A/SACD. Although there is still a bit of "it's all in the mastering" that applies to video as well.

 

I concur on Lawrence.
The Todd-AO version of Oklahoma! is stunning.
As is How The West Was Won.

 

I literally felt my eyes get tired from the clarity of watching it!

Dream would have been to see it on biggest cinema screen in town, still an amazing visual experience in Home environment!

 

Yea, I agree about Lawrence of Arabia

Also the recent 4k of The Third Man. Great!

 

Well, there are a ton of Marvel movies that were technically shot in 2.8K or 3.2K, but then uprezzed to 4K at the end. And there are projects shot in 4K where all the VFX were done in 2K and uprezzed as part of the post process.

I have seen direct comparisons of 2K vs. 4K with the exact same material, and the differences are subtle and not enormous.

 

A month or so ago, I was at a get together where a comparison of the new gen JVC projectors and a Sony "true" 4k pj, the 665ES.
Viewing true 4k content, not studio titles, these clips utilized HDR and BT.2020 color space.
Viewing was about 11 feet from a 120" screen. The pjs were calibrated by an employee of Spectracal using their CalMAN software.
I won't get into the gear comparison.

While the clarity was excellent, I was more impressed by the colors. Real world real or as close as I've ever seen from a projected image.
In that limited time, I would agree with Vidiot, my perception of the improvement in resolution was noticeable but not a huge.

In the near future, we're going to see The Revenant at The Cinerama in Seattle which has 4k projection.
Since the movie was shot in 4k I'm very much looking forward to seeing both the film itself and the image.

 

Anything restored by Robert A. Harris.

Lawrence of Arabia
Spartacus
My Fair Lady

All fabulous!

 

Small correction: only about 25% of The Revenant was shot on Alexa 65 in 6K. Most of the movie was shot on normal Alexa in 3.2K, so it's an uprez to 4K (and a ton of "invisible" VFX). But an extremely good-looking movie nonetheless. This is a good example of a film that appears to be fairly natural, but has very heavy, heavy color-correction, done by Steve Scott and his minions at Technicolor/Hollywood.

 

Thanks for the correction Vid.
I typo'd as I thought the film was done entirely on the Alexa 6k cam.
Wasn't aware of the 3.2k.
From the trailers, it looked like you described, heavy-duty post processing.

 

Where can I see it? It's on my "guilty pleasures" list.